Disney+

Disney+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming media service owned and operated by Disney Streaming, the streaming division of Disney Entertainment, a major business segment of the Walt Disney Company. The service primarily distributes films and television shows produced by Walt Disney Studios and Disney Television Studios, with dedicated content hubs for Disney's flagship brands: Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, ESPN (the US, Latin America, Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa only), and Hulu as well as showcasing original and exclusive films and television shows. Disney+ is the third most-subscribed video on demand streaming media service after Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, with 131.6 million paid memberships. Disney+ relies on technology developed by Disney Streaming, which was originally established as BAMTech in 2015¹ when it was spun off from MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM).…

Disney+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming media service owned and operated by Disney Streaming, the streaming division of Disney Entertainment, a major business segment of the Walt Disney Company. The service primarily distributes films and television shows produced by Walt Disney Studios and Disney Television Studios, with dedicated content hubs for Disney's flagship brands: Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, ESPN (the US, Latin America, Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa only), and Hulu as well as showcasing original and exclusive films and television shows. Disney+ is the third most-subscribed video on demand streaming media service after Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, with 131.6 million paid memberships. Disney+ relies on technology developed by Disney Streaming, which was originally established as BAMTech in 2015 when it was spun off from MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM). Disney increased its ownership share of BAMTech to a controlling stake in 2017 and subsequently transferred ownership to Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International, as part of a corporate restructuring in anticipation of Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox, through which the Star brand was inherited and got retooled as a content platform within the service in some regions, with Latin America having its own standalone service, Star+, until June 26 and July 24, 2024. The Star brand was phased out on October 8, 2025, being replaced with Hulu outside the US except Japan due to the existing Hulu Japan. With BAMTech helping to launch ESPN+ in early 2018, and Disney's streaming distribution deal with Netflix ending in 2019, Disney took the opportunity to use technologies being developed for ESPN+ to establish a Disney-branded streaming service that would feature its content. Production of films and television shows for exclusive release on the platform began in late 2017. Disney+ was launched on November 12, 2019, in the United States, Canada and the Netherlands, and expanded to Australia, New Zealand and Puerto Rico a week later. It became available in select European countries in March 2020 and in India in April through Star India's Hotstar streaming service, which was rebranded as Disney+ Hotstar. Additional European countries received Disney+ in September 2020, with the service expanding to Latin America in November 2020. It later expanded in Southeast Asian countries since 2021, followed by countries in Northern and Eastern Europe, Middle East and parts of Africa since May 2022. Upon launch, it was met with positive reception of its content library, but was criticized for technical problems and missing content. Alterations made to films and television shows also attracted media attention. Ten million users had subscribed to Disney+ by the end of its first day of operation. In the third quarter of 2024, the number of global Disney+ subscribers amounted to 153.8 million. This marked a growth of around seven million compared with the same quarter of the previous year.

Hulu on Disney+ launch and phase-out of Star

On December 6, 2023, Disney added a Hulu content hub to Disney+ as a beta for U.S. Disney Bundle subscribers. Disney+ only subscribers also have a small portion of Hulu catalogue available to watch. On March 27, 2024, the Hulu content hub officially exited beta. On August 6, 2025, after the completion of its acquisition of Comcast's stake in the service, Disney announced plans to fully migrate Hulu to the Disney+ platform in the United States. While Disney+ and Hulu will remain separate subscription products, their separate apps are to be replaced by a new "unified" platform in 2026. Concurrently, Disney also announced that it would replace Star with Hulu as its "global general entertainment brand" on October 8.

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